The lawyer cleared his throat and looked over his glasses at Kat, who was shrinking from the shocked expressions of her two brothers. Then he continued reading. “To Kat: I trust you, kid. I could see in your eyes how much you loved my ranch, my animals, the land. I believe you will take good care of it. You’ll do what it takes to bring it back to its former glory. I should have asked for your help while I was still alive, but you know me. I’m a stubborn old man. Please, do whatever it takes to bring my legacy back. I believe in you and your business-savvy brain. The liquid assets I left you should hopefully be enough to help you get started. Oh, and tell Tony I miss his jokes, which you should laugh at, even though they aren’t actually funny. Seriously, though, he’ll help if you have any questions.”
Kat sat in stunned silence while the lawyer read the rest of the messages Uncle Roy had left. None of it seemed real at all. How was she going to run a ranch? But how could she be cruel enough to sell it? Her uncle knew her well enough to know she would never do that to him, especially not after his death. But why did he think she was the right person to run any kind of ranch? She was a city girl, accustomed to maneuvering through a jungle of people, taxis, and algorithms. She could build a social media platform in no time at all, but a real, flesh-and-blood ranch? She’d never even imagined such a future for herself.
After the will hearing, her mother took Kat and her brothers out to lunch. They’d only just sat down when Judd turned to Kat and said, “Be honest. You knew this was coming, didn’t you?”
Kat shook her head vigorously. “I swear I didn’t. I have no idea what I’m supposed to do with this. It’s nowhere near my lane.”
“I’ll tell you what to do,” Travis said. “Hand it off to one of us.”
“Or sell it,” Judd added.
“Orsell it,” Travis echoed in agreement.
Their mother finally chimed in. “Absolutely not. I raised all of you better than that. You honor the last wishes of those who go before you so that your last wishes will be honored when it’s your turn. You know that.” Her look was as sharp and cold as ice, and Kat flashed back to her childhood, when their mother would chide them for lying about silly little things. The sharp look seemed to have worked, because the second her mother spoke up, her brothers shrank into their chairs and their advice came to a complete standstill.
Kat stared down at her sandwich and clenched her napkin in a tight fist. “But what if I don’t know what I’m even doing?”
Their mother smiled. “Give it the best you’ve got. If you fail, then Uncle Roy chose wrong, and we’ll all consider it his fault rather than yours. This is a rare opportunity for you. You can try something outside your comfort zone, and if you fail, it’s really someone else’s failure. You did everything you could to grant your uncle’s last wishes. Whether you succeed or not, you gave it your best shot, and that’s all that matters in the end.”
“I doubt Uncle Roy would see it that way,” Kat said.
“I know your uncle as well as anyone in this family, and I know he would absolutely see it that way.” Her mom was adamant, and Kat didn’t dare argue back.
Eventually, Travis offered some helpful, more serious advice than he had before. “What you’ve got to do is find the right person to manage the place. Use the money he gave you to pay them a salary, and move on with your own life.”
“Maybe Tony could do it,” Judd said with a shrug.
“Or he could train the new manager,” Travis added, helpful as ever.
The beauty of Kat’s family was that, even when she received the unexpected inheritance, even after her brothers’ jaws practically hit the floor in shock, she knew they would not be fighting over it. Though they had their differences, they had always supported one another in times of stress. Right now, her brothers were offering real, meaningful advice, and Kat’s heart warmed upon hearing it. She’d seen enough dramas about family inheritance wars to know that was a possibility, and she couldn’t have been gladder that her family wasn’t anything like that. They were neighborly, a team, and no one and nothing was going to tear them apart.
Though Kat had been feeling out of place when she first arrived back in town and again at the funeral, she was at least assured that her family was with her. They’d stand by her, even if they didn’t understand what she was doing, just as her uncle had done. They trusted each other. And she began to see that she might actually have a place here, if only for a little while. Maybe she would hire someone to manage the place—someone good—and she would return from time to time to check up on the ranch and see how her family was doing. Maybe this would bring them all a little closer together despite their physical distance from each other. Maybe that was Uncle Roy’s intention all along.
They finished lunch talking about various people in town who might be interested in managing an old ranch. There were several possibilities, but her brothers and mother could not come to a consensus on who should be the first choice.
“Make a pros-and-cons list for all of them,” Travis suggested.
“Flip a coin,” Judd countered.
Kat laughed. “I’ll do both, but I’m not sure either one will give me any answers.”
“Eat, eat,” their mom said, putting a stop to the conversation. “While it’s hot.”
Kat tried to focus on lunch and on getting caught up with her family, but her mind wouldn’t wander the way she wanted it to. She kept coming back to the ranch and how it was now her responsibility. How was she supposed to save something like that? Her uncle had surely chosen the wrong sibling for the task. But it had been his choice in the end, not hers, and all she could do was honor his choice.
Kat’s roomat the B&B was booked for one more night, and if she was completely honest with herself, she wasn’t looking forward to going back to Houston. Things seemed unfinished here. Or was it that she was starting to appreciate her small town a bit more? She wasn’t feeling quite as alienated as she had before. The worker at her favorite café remembered her from the day prior and knew what she was going to order.
Most people still didn’t remember who she was, but the few who did had met her only once before they greeted her like something other than a stranger. And for some reason, that was enough to give her some hope that she might actually manage to fit in one day, if she could only stick around long enough.
She was in the middle of brushing her teeth that night when her boss called. Of course, she didn’t answer because what would she even say?Mffwwfuuwah? No, he would not find that cute or amusing. So, she finished brushing, rinsed, and called him back.
He didn’t even start withhello. Instead, he snapped at her. “Why aren’t you answering your phone?”
She glared across the room even though no one would benefit from seeing it. “I was brushing my teeth. Am I not allowed to brush my teeth at nine o’clock at night?”
He ignored her cheeky attitude. “Have you gotten a positive response from all your contacts?” he asked.
“Not yet,” she admitted. “The designers are on board, but some of the influencers are already booked.”
